Jessica Biel to Menace Wolverine as Viper

Looks like Fox is really putting the pedal to the medal on “The Wolverine”. After a long time of nothing happening, the film is now moving full-steam head towards production in Australia sometime next month.

Following up on the casting of a slew of Japanese actors (the sequel finds mutant hero Wolverine causing all manner of trouble in Japan), including the villainous Silver Samurai, the production has now added Jessica Biel, fresh off playing a good girl in Len Wiseman’s “Total Recall” reboot to play another villain in the movie.

Biel will play Viper, who may or may not be the Viper of Hydra, though I suspect it is. Viper and Hydra are old Marvel Universe villains, but I don’t recall if the character ever crossed paths with Wolverine in the comics. But I’m sure she did at one point or another. Every Marvel hero and villain have crossed each other’s paths at one point, I’m sure.

Hugh Jackman will return as the titular “The Wolverine”, which finds the hairy Canucklehead in Japan where he falls in love with the daughter of a Yakuza crime boss. The movie is expected to take its cue from the Frank Miller-Chris Claremont Wolverine limited series comic book from the ’80s.

Below is the Viper that I think “The Wolverine” has in mind, or a variation of her. (This is comic books, after all; there are always more than one variation of an existing character.)

This won’t be Biel’s first time in a Marvel movie. She previously co-starred with Wesley Snipes in 2004’s “Blade: Trinity”, in a role that was supposed to be spun off into her own movie. She also co-starred alongside Ryan Reynolds in that film. Reynolds would go on to co-star with Hugh Jackman in 2009’s “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”.